The Man Who Pushed Canada’s Conservatives Further to the Right
Ted Byfield, the founder of the far-right Alberta Report, left an indelible mark on Canadian conservatism. He was responsible for emboldening the most racist and anti-worker elements of the Right.
The wealthy patrons of the Reform Party were happy to use Ted Byfield and his Alberta Report to help mobilize a constituency of the angry, the zealous, and the unhinged as a battering ram for more aggressive austerity policies. Then the backers lost control.
On December 23, 2021, Ted Byfield, publisher of the Alberta Report, died. The conservative weekly’s readership peaked at around 400,000 per week in the late ’90s before disappearing in 2003. Upon his death, Byfield received gushing praise from current and former members of Parliament, premiers, and columnists alike.
Dubbed the “grand old man of the Canadian conservative movement,” Byfield made the case, in the pages of his magazine, for a new, more aggressive party of the Right. At the time, he may not have been widely read — but those who did read his paper had access to money and power.
Byfield and the Alberta Report were, for a time, the id of Canadian conservatism. The seldom-mentioned wealthy backers of the Reform Party — the largest component part of today’s Conservative Party of Canada — were only too happy to use Byfield and the Report to help mobilize a constituency of the angry, the zealous, and the unhinged as a battering ram for more aggressive austerity policies. Then, as often happens, the backers lost control.
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